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40coats · 11-01-2005, 11:32

I use VGA to a projector with powerstrip giving me 1:1 pixel matching and the picture is excellent. Personally I wouldn't have gone down the PC root if my display was a crt tv.

statto · 11-01-2005, 14:59

Thanks for the advice secret_squirrel - I am using PowerDVD 5 as it came with the ATI card. I'll get a decent S-Video to scart cable and try again. Would a different GFX card be better? I want the quality of the stand-alone DVD player with the functionality the Hauppauge twin tuner card and SageTV. I want my cake and eat it to.... LOL. Is it possible to get an evaluation copy of MCE 2005 to test it out?

secret_squirrel · 11-01-2005, 19:00

Quote:

Originally Posted by statto

I want my cake and eat it to.... LOL. Is it possible to get an evaluation copy of MCE 2005 to test it out?

Evaluation copies of microsoft software - you must be joking.

If you are thinking of getting or have the Hauppauge PVR500 twin tuner card its been reported to have serious driver issues with Win MCE.

Definately try the trial versions of WinDVD6 and NV_DVD.

You have a pretty decent video card there - Im not sure I would get rid of it for the sake of the tv screen display. Unless you can swap it for a similarly specced Nvidia card. (Geforce 5900???)

A lot of people seem to have sucess improving their displays using powerstrip - but I havent tried it.

TBH you can get €40 DVD players with progressive scan now - you've never gonna get a pc display that comes close to that. (Assumes you have a tv with prog scan of course)

Do like me - start saving for that LCD/Plasma screen with VGA, DVI and HD inputs

Cavman · 11-01-2005, 23:53

i'm a newbie about mce pc's i just know the basic,
what parts do you need to build one for ntl digital?
is it hard to set up for ntl digital when built?

all help would be great
cheers guys

Graham · 12-01-2005, 00:34

Hi Cavman,

building the mce pc itself wasn't difficult at all. You need a PC with a compatible video card, TV Tuner, MCE remote control and of course Windows Media Centre 2005.

Getting an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for NTL Digital is prooving a little trickier. Microsoft don't yet provide an EPG for Ireland, so you're left to try and cobble your own together. I managed to get this working for NTL analog but am struggling a little with NTL Digital.

I haven't worked on the EPG for a couple of weeks now but I do plan to have another go later this week, I'll let you know if I manage to get it working.

statto · 12-01-2005, 08:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by secret_squirrel

Do like me - start saving for that LCD/Plasma screen with VGA, DVI and HD inputs

Thanks for the advice - I think I will put my media PC on hold till I get an LCD screen (if and when the ever come down in price!). The last few days I have been reading the AVS forum and boy is it complicated most of the the stuff when over my head. Time to go back to college and do a course in AV engerrning!!. All I have to do now is find a DVD recorder with a hard disk that plays Divx and has a working EPG !!!!!

Cheers

By the whay, Grahmam, what display are you using?

Graham · 12-01-2005, 19:43

It's a 30" Thomson Selenium, it's a fantastic LCD and comes with almost every type of input you can think of. Off the type of my head:

Aerial
S-Video
Composite Video
2 x Scart
DVI
VGA

I saw the 27" version in Dixons last week for €999

secret_squirrel · 12-01-2005, 22:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham

Hi Cavman,

building the mce pc itself wasn't difficult at all. You need a PC with a compatible video card, TV Tuner, MCE remote control and of course Windows Media Centre 2005.

Also a software DVD player is essential - MCE wont work without one -it will tell you there is a tuner error - that cost me plenty of head scratching.

Ebay is a good source of all things MCE - it has the Haupauge 150MCE tv/fm tuner, WinMCE2005 and the MCE remote all for reasonable prices. Delivery to Ireland can sometime be a pain. Helps if you have a friend up north.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Graham

Getting an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for NTL Digital is prooving a little trickier. Microsoft don't yet provide an EPG for Ireland, so you're left to try and cobble your own together. I managed to get this working for NTL analog but am struggling a little with NTL Digital.

I haven't worked on the EPG for a couple of weeks now but I do plan to have another go later this week, I'll let you know if I manage to get it working.

Graham I assume that is in place of NTL analog?? According to some research I did today WinMCE wont support both the analog input and the svideo/composite inputs in the same set up. Which means you cant get some channels from NTL analog and some from NTL digital its either one or the other. Which is a bit of a bummer for me since I was thinking of getting a skybox with a uk smartcard and sourcing the irish channels from my chorus analog.

Graham · 12-01-2005, 23:08

I don't think it's the DVD player that's essential, it's the software that comes with it, the MPEG decoding software if memory serves.

I started with NTL's analog service and had MCE and the EPG working nicely together (with TV schedules sourced from XMLTV).

I've since switched to NTL Digital and there seems to be some problems with some of the characters in the XML for the additional TV stations which are preventing a successful import into the MCE EPG.

I think all it's going to take is a process of ellimination to work out which station's data stream is at fault, find the dodgy characters and use a find & replace script to remove them.

You're correct about MCE, all the stations need to come from a single source. Or if you have 2 tuners they both need connecting to similar sources, e.g. 2 NTL Digital set top boxes. I'm sure you could have 2 MCE machines running side by side to run disparate TV sources but that would just be greedy

secret_squirrel · 12-01-2005, 23:12

You are using the latest version of smartguide right?? There have been a couple of version with fixes to remove dodgy characters from some of the xml fields.

Graham · 12-01-2005, 23:32

Yup, very latest versions of everything, including the latest version of smartguide which removes some of the dodgy characters and overlength fields which have caused problems in the past.

I have a hunch that it might be the channels with +1 in the channel name that are causing the problems so they'll be the first to go. If that doesn't work it's down to starting with 1 channel and adding the rest in 1 at a time.

If I get a working EPG for NTL digital I'll let you know.

statto · 21-01-2005, 12:01

Having problems with setting up MCE 2005. Keep getting either Decoder error or Video Error messages when trying to view Live TV or DVD's. I have PowerDVD 5 and PVR-500 MCE twin tuner card with a 9800 PRO gfx card. I did a goggle and came across forums where this error was resolved by using WinDVD 6. So I downloaded the trail version but no joy. I have run the MCE 2005 diagnostic tool and pass on everything. I have uninstalled all the drivers and reinstalled them. I installed MCE 2005 on a spare disk in my PC and have it dual boot with XP pro, as I want to test everything out before building my new Media PC box. As this isn’t the final resting place of MCE 2005 I haven’t activated it yet. My next step is to format the drive and start again. Any help before I do this would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

40coats · 21-01-2005, 14:08

Try sticking the nvidia trial codec on.
http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_dec....67-trial.html

statto · 21-01-2005, 22:54

Thanks 40coats. Used the nvdia decoder. Got a step further - decoder error gone - just getting a blank screen now but can hear audio. looks like a format and rebuid.

cheers

secret_squirrel · 22-01-2005, 01:49

well the mce500 pvr is known to have mce 2005 driver issues can you beg borrow or steal a 150, 250,350? If that is the case your probs might go away. I noticed on a coupla forum how disabling one of the tuners on the pvr500mce sorted things out but dont know the details.

12-01-2005, 23:08	#54
Graham Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Dublin Posts: 1,004 Adverts \| Friends	I don't think it's the DVD player that's essential, it's the software that comes with it, the MPEG decoding software if memory serves. I started with NTL's analog service and had MCE and the EPG working nicely together (with TV schedules sourced from XMLTV). I've since switched to NTL Digital and there seems to be some problems with some of the characters in the XML for the additional TV stations which are preventing a successful import into the MCE EPG. I think all it's going to take is a process of ellimination to work out which station's data stream is at fault, find the dodgy characters and use a find & replace script to remove them. You're correct about MCE, all the stations need to come from a single source. Or if you have 2 tuners they both need connecting to similar sources, e.g. 2 NTL Digital set top boxes. I'm sure you could have 2 MCE machines running side by side to run disparate TV sources but that would just be greedy Last edited by Graham; 12-01-2005 at 23:10. Reason: Can't spell the big words.

12-01-2005, 23:32	#56
Graham Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Dublin Posts: 1,004 Adverts \| Friends	Yup, very latest versions of everything, including the latest version of smartguide which removes some of the dodgy characters and overlength fields which have caused problems in the past. I have a hunch that it might be the channels with +1 in the channel name that are causing the problems so they'll be the first to go. If that doesn't work it's down to starting with 1 channel and adding the rest in 1 at a time. If I get a working EPG for NTL digital I'll let you know. Last edited by Graham; 12-01-2005 at 23:46.

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11-01-2005, 11:32	#46
40coats Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: Dublin Posts: 158 Adverts \| Friends	I use VGA to a projector with powerstrip giving me 1:1 pixel matching and the picture is excellent. Personally I wouldn't have gone down the PC root if my display was a crt tv.

11-01-2005, 14:59	#47
statto Registered User Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 92 Adverts \| Friends	Thanks for the advice secret_squirrel - I am using PowerDVD 5 as it came with the ATI card. I'll get a decent S-Video to scart cable and try again. Would a different GFX card be better? I want the quality of the stand-alone DVD player with the functionality the Hauppauge twin tuner card and SageTV. I want my cake and eat it to.... LOL. Is it possible to get an evaluation copy of MCE 2005 to test it out?

11-01-2005, 23:53	#49
Cavman Registered User Join Date: Oct 2004 Posts: 107 Adverts \| Friends	i'm a newbie about mce pc's i just know the basic, what parts do you need to build one for ntl digital? is it hard to set up for ntl digital when built? all help would be great cheers guys

12-01-2005, 00:34	#50
Graham Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Dublin Posts: 1,004 Adverts \| Friends	Hi Cavman, building the mce pc itself wasn't difficult at all. You need a PC with a compatible video card, TV Tuner, MCE remote control and of course Windows Media Centre 2005. Getting an Electronic Program Guide (EPG) for NTL Digital is prooving a little trickier. Microsoft don't yet provide an EPG for Ireland, so you're left to try and cobble your own together. I managed to get this working for NTL analog but am struggling a little with NTL Digital. I haven't worked on the EPG for a couple of weeks now but I do plan to have another go later this week, I'll let you know if I manage to get it working.

12-01-2005, 19:43	#52
Graham Registered User Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Dublin Posts: 1,004 Adverts \| Friends	It's a 30" Thomson Selenium, it's a fantastic LCD and comes with almost every type of input you can think of. Off the type of my head: Aerial S-Video Composite Video 2 x Scart DVI VGA I saw the 27" version in Dixons last week for €999

12-01-2005, 23:12	#55
secret_squirrel Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: A Nuclear Submarine off the coast of Sweden Posts: 3,313 Adverts \| Friends	You are using the latest version of smartguide right?? There have been a couple of version with fixes to remove dodgy characters from some of the xml fields.

21-01-2005, 12:01	#57
statto Registered User Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 92 Adverts \| Friends	Having problems with setting up MCE 2005. Keep getting either Decoder error or Video Error messages when trying to view Live TV or DVD's. I have PowerDVD 5 and PVR-500 MCE twin tuner card with a 9800 PRO gfx card. I did a goggle and came across forums where this error was resolved by using WinDVD 6. So I downloaded the trail version but no joy. I have run the MCE 2005 diagnostic tool and pass on everything. I have uninstalled all the drivers and reinstalled them. I installed MCE 2005 on a spare disk in my PC and have it dual boot with XP pro, as I want to test everything out before building my new Media PC box. As this isn’t the final resting place of MCE 2005 I haven’t activated it yet. My next step is to format the drive and start again. Any help before I do this would be much appreciated. Thanks.

21-01-2005, 14:08	#58
40coats Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: Dublin Posts: 158 Adverts \| Friends	Try sticking the nvidia trial codec on. http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_dec....67-trial.html

21-01-2005, 22:54	#59
statto Registered User Join Date: Apr 2004 Posts: 92 Adverts \| Friends	Thanks 40coats. Used the nvdia decoder. Got a step further - decoder error gone - just getting a blank screen now but can hear audio. looks like a format and rebuid. cheers

22-01-2005, 01:49	#60
secret_squirrel Registered User Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: A Nuclear Submarine off the coast of Sweden Posts: 3,313 Adverts \| Friends	well the mce500 pvr is known to have mce 2005 driver issues can you beg borrow or steal a 150, 250,350? If that is the case your probs might go away. I noticed on a coupla forum how disabling one of the tuners on the pvr500mce sorted things out but dont know the details.